The Witch Cat
by CrimsonStrawberry17
Summary: Yami, a witch cat, has lived his whole life in the forests of Fey, far from the presence of humans. On his 13th birthday, a witch tells him to help the one who offers him a peach. After he encounters a human in the forest, searching for a cure to his sister's blindness, Yami finds himself heading into the human for the first time when the human offers him a peach. REVISED ED.


For those of you who have read the original few chapters of _The Witch Cat_, I hope you like the new version. The plot and beginnings of the story has changed slightly from the original version, but the backgrounds are still the same. To all the new readers who have taken an interest in this story, please enjoy.

This story is set in a alternate universe that's kind of like the medieval time period. However, you won't see much of that until later chapters, because most of that of culture would be intermixed with the human lifestyles. Currently, the story focuses on Yami's life in the forests of Fey, far away from the human civilization and getting a feel on how the different magical races within the forest coexist.

Also, there won't be much pairings in this story. There might be a few pairings with background characters, but the story mostly revolves on Yami's journey along with his companions.

Warnings: None.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Yu-Gi-Oh.

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_A Peach and the Closed Door_

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He was dreaming again.

He knew because he had dreamed of this same place, this same scene, so many times that he had come to know it better than the back of his own hand.

All the details stood out clearly to him, illuminated by the light of a waning moon. He could feel the cool and smooth wood beneath his small, bare feet. Leaves rustled and crickets chirped. Somewhere a mouse scurried across the maple wood floor, its tiny claws clicking so softly a human wouldn't have heard it.

A breeze eddied in the open window. Outside it, a tree cast its shadow across the bed behind him. The moon was just visible between forks of its leafy green foliage. A sweet scent wafted in. It smelled of ripe peaches and wildflowers.

He was facing the door again. It was made of maple, just like the rest of the furniture in the room. And like always, as he stood before it, he had to wonder whether it was the door that was too big, or if he was just so small. It loomed before him almost mockingly. The dull brass door knob seemed impossibly high.

He knew he wouldn't be able to open it. He would wake before his pale fingers even touched the knob. And yet . . . his dream-self was still reaching for the handle. He could feel himself straining towards it, standing on the very tips of his toes in his attempt to reach it. His tail flickered wildly behind him in an effort to keep him balanced.

His fingers edged closer to the brass knob. He cool almost feel its smooth and cool surface beneath his fingertips. The red light was dancing beneath the door again and as he looked down, the room vanished into the inky darkness and he tumbled down into the swirling shadows that waited for him beneath.

Yami's eyes snapped wide awake. Almost as soon as he had opened them he snapped them shut against the brilliant sunlight that flooded into his room. For a second he lay there, frowning. Hadn't he closed his curtains last night? His head turned to eye the large window suspiciously.

His ears perked upon noticing the fresh water basin lying in wait for him upon the window sill. One of the servants must have brought it in when they opened the curtains. Slipping free of his thick cocoon of blankets and pillows, he padded silently over to blue marble basin and looked down into it. The water shimmered within and caused small waves of pale silvery blue light to dance across his face. It reminded him of moonlight.

_Moonlight . . ._

Ruby irises shifted from the basin and watched the shadows of a plum tree across the yard dance across the dewy grass. It wasn't unusual for him to have such lucid dreams, but this strange reoccurring dream went beyond lucidity. It felt too real, as though he had been standing there in that room, trying to open that door, and yet . . . it was a dream. It had to be.

He had lived his whole life within the estate on Draconia Summit. He had roamed the forests of Fey plenty of times before, but there were only two other settlements around and he'd been in and out of both. There was the elven village beyond the Willow River and Mystic Hollow to south. In neither of the two villages did a room even similar to the one in his dream exist.

Despite the knowledge that the place only existed within his dreams, it still made him uneasy. Autumn, Mystic Hollow's Village elder, had once told him that dreams often meant something, especially the reoccurring ones. They were subconscious messages that were either admonitions of what was to come or illusions of one's fear.

He'd been dreaming of that door for the past few months now. The fact that he was approaching his thirteenth birthday troubled him. Within a few days he would go through the puberty rites along with the other coming of age males in Mystic Hollow. The door was always closed in his dream. Was it a sign that he was nervous of his upcoming rites, or an ominous warning?

He shook the thought away in time to hear the flowing rings of the silver bells, summoning everyone to breakfast. His ears perked and he hurriedly scrubbed his hands and face clean in the basin and leapt out his window.

He landed lightly on the boughs of a nearby plum tree and picked a flowering blossom as he bounded down the truck. The small golden bell that he wore around his neck with a crimson ribbon tinkled lightly as he moved. It was only after he landed on the ground that he realized he was still in his nightgown. The bell rang again and he shrugged. No matter. He could change later.

The mess hall was already filled with the estate's servants and Mokuba's two pupils. His master was nowhere to be found, but Yami suspected he was up in the west tower, where his study was located, or visiting Kisara in her lair. He wondered if that meant there'd be no morning lessons. It was rare that Seto released him from his lessons, unless it was a gypsy festival day or he was busy caring for the dragons.

He grabbed a few items onto a platter and found a seat his master's brother. Mokuba's grey eyes were glowing as he chatted amiably with the youngest of his students, Epona, about a prank he had pulled on a goblin over a decade ago. She and her older brother came from Mystic Hollow, apprenticed to Mokuba soon after they turned six, as was the norm for all gypsies. Though Mokuba was only 32, barely more than a toddler in the gypsies' eyes, he was already considered to be ranked among the masters much like his older brother.

Epona and her brother Jodoc would train under Mokuba until they had turned of age, and were allowed to choose what branches of magic they wished to pursue. Depending on what branches they chose, they would either be returning to Mystic Hollow or staying under Mokuba's tutorage. The former seemed more probable. Each gypsy chose a branch of magic that was more suited to their personality and strengths. The likeness that either sibling would choose a branch of magic Mokuba had already fully mastered was slim.

More than likely, both would return to Mystic Hollow after they had gone through the puberty rites to seek out a new master. From there, once they had succeeded in mastering their chosen branch of magic, they could either settle down and begin a family or choose a new branch of magic to pursue and the cycle continued until the gypsy no longer wished to pursue a new branch of magic.

For now, Mokuba's task was to teach them Charms. Charms were the most basic of all gypsy magic, and it helped young gypsies improve control over their magical power and helped them gain a better understanding of what magics they would be best suited for.

Yami was a different case. As a witch cat, his magical abilities stemmed from his bond to his master, Seto. As such, he would only be able to master whatever branches of magic Seto had mastered himself. Or at least . . . that was what he had been told. As far as he knew, he was turning out to be the worst magic practitioner on this side of the forest. Considering his master was one of the most powerful gypsies known to the forests of Fey, the fact only served to make Yami miserable.

Every morning and afternoon since he could remember, he had been attending morning and evening lessons from his master unless it was one of the special occasions. Some days they were lessons of practicality, like learning about the plants of the forest, or weapons practice. Other days he received schooling in things like history, geography, arithmetic, and writing. And then there were lessons he hated the most: magic training.

Though charms were the easiest type of magic he could possibly learn from Seto, they seemed like the most difficult thing he could ever achieve. Despite years of training, Yami could only cast a few charms while the rest tended to blow up in his face or leave him seeing black and red spots dancing before his eyes. On a few occasions, the attempt had even caused him to faint.

Epona was only a year in her training, but she could cast spells far more easily than Yami. Neither Jodoc nor Epona had ever passed out from exhaustion as a result of casting a charm. The knowledge made Yami feel inadequate. His master had learned many different branches and was one out of three people in the history of gypsies to ever achieve the summoning of a dragon.

Having grown up around the dragons, Yami never understood the general fear the servants harbored for them. Yami found it quite silly that they ran in panic each time any dragon other than Kisara flew down from the caves further up the mountain to the estate. He supposed that being bonded with the warlock that was a trusted friend to the resident dragon clan allowed him to see the gentler side of the fire breathing beasts and the ability to walk without fear among them was something he had always taken for granted.

He had always respected and admired the dragons, and he couldn't imagine them doing anything to hurt him. He trusted the dragons and they seemed believe he was no threat to him. After all, he was allowed to crawl into their nests of eggs and hatchlings when even Seto was warned to keep his distance. Only when the hatchlings were strong enough to fly from their nests was Seto allowed to approach the baby dragons. Yami wondered if it made his master jealous.

"Yami?" Mokuba's voice murmured in his ear. "Are you alright? You barely touched any of your breakfast."

"Huh?" Yami looked down at his plate, full of tarts and fruits he no longer found appealing. A glance out a window told him that it would be time for the morning lessons soon. He took a peach from array of uneaten food and shoved his plate away. After mumbling an explanation of his behavior to Mokuba he bounded from his seat back to his room.

Tossing the peach onto his bed, he slipped free of his sleeping tunic and hung it on one of his bedposts. He rummaged in his dresser and came up with a pair of soft green leggings in his dresser drawer. From another drawer he pulled a faded autumn red tunic and pulled it over his head. He belted a braided leather cord around his waist to complete the ensemble. After he had tugged on his worn leather boots, he tucked the peach inside his tunic and headed down to the central courtyard.

Once he had reached it, Yami stopped and looked around for the auburn haired warlock. There was always a slight chance that he was busy and Yami could skip on down to spend the morning playing with Mana. He spotted his mentor sitting on one of stone benches surrounding the courtyard, however. The other gave no notice of his arrival seemingly absorbed by the leather bound tome in his hands. Yami wasn't fooled.

Many times he had approached his master in such a state, thinking he'd got the better of his cynical tutor, only to realize he'd fallen straight into a trap. The majority of the time, he'd be rewarded with a cold dose of water, courtesy of his mentor's elemental magic combined with an frost charm. As a witch cat, he naturally hated spending too much time in water. Having several gallons of freezing cold water dumped on his head was beyond infuriating, especially when his master uses that particular spell on purpose.

Needless to say, it was quite obvious why Yami eyed his mentor distrustfully when a slim finger lifted and silently beckoned. Blue eyes flickered over to him as their owner realized he was not obeying the command. Yami swore he saw a hint of a smirk within those sapphire depths. Slowly he crossed the courtyard and came to stand in front of the apathetic warlock.

He gave an inner sigh of relief when no water came down upon his head. The relief soon dissipated when he realized that his master's staff was resting on the stone bench beside him. Uh-oh. Were they using their staffs today? He hadn't brought his staff. While it was standard for gypsies – and by extension, him – to keep their staffs with them at all times if they were a practitioner of a magic that used staffs, he generally kept his shoved away in his closet unless Seto demanded he fetch it.

He hated his staff. It felt wrong to hold in his hands. He couldn't say why, but the one time he had told his master about his discomfort, Seto had brusquely answered that it was because someone else had made it and declared the matter settled. Yami had heard that gypsy staff users regularly carved their own staffs once they came of age before, but it still seemed strange. Nor did it change the fact that every time he picked up the staff he felt like dousing it in oil and setting it aflame. And that was saying something, considering his inexplicable . . .

"YAMI!" The witch cat's head snapped up as he realized his master had been calling his name for the last five minutes. "Finished daydreaming?" He flushed at the snide tone and followed his master as he strode to the fountain sitting in the center of the courtyard.

"Today we are going to stick with defense charms," his master said. Yami struggled not to turn tail and run as his master flicked his fingers and caused the water to come spilling out over the edge of the fountain. It swirled around his master, taking the forms of several serpentine dragons.

"You can use any spell you'd like, as long as its purpose is to defend. Shield charms, deflection spells, absorbing spells . . . but no rebounding spells. It counts as offense. Understand?" Yami nodded. "Good. Now . . . begin!"

As the first water dragon surged towards him, Yami instinctively found himself locking his fingers and thrusting them outwards, palms facing the oncoming threat as the charm rolled off his tongue. It wasn't until he saw the water hit the flagstones and his master's irritated glare that he realized he had cast a rebound spell.

"Are you deaf? I said no offensive charms! I would expect my pupil to listen when his master clearly states the rules."

Yami found his cheeks burning. His master seemed gifted in that particular area. Yami bit his tongue and nodded. He knew that if he tried to say anything, some snappish remark would end up tumbling out, and he'd be in even worse trouble. He had learned at an early age that an angry Seto was something to contend with.

"Any more foolishness from you and you'll be scrubbing the entrance hall for the rest of the lesson. Begin!" his master called.

Yami found himself drenched in water as another dragon launched itself at him. It passed through him, dousing him thoroughly. He spat out a mouthful of water and threw up a shield spell as a third dragon attacked. But the shield was weak and it shattered under the blow. The dragon retreated, coming around for another attack.

The witch cat, having been focused on the third dragon, was unprepared for when the second crashed into him from behind, knocking him to ground. His master tsked at him, and two new dragons swirled up into existence from the flowing waters of the fountain. Yami's damp ears twitched as he scowled at them. Instinct prompted him to drop to the ground just as a dragon launched himself at him, its liquid body streaming by inches over his head.

With a snarl he leapt to his feet, a charm tumbling from his lips. Yami lost track of what he was doing. All he was aware of were the charms rolling off the tip of his tongue and the black spots that danced in his eyes. His body felt heavy and slow, like he was trudging through mud that reached up to his thighs. The blackness was crowding his vision.

"That's enough!" His master's words brought everything to a halt. Yami blinked, his vision clearing, for the first time taking in the scene around him as his mentor stalked across the rubble strewn yard. Fragments of the fountain lay everywhere, and pieces of cobblestone from the courtyard itself had been tossed free of its confines. A thin layer of water covered the whole area, dribbling from the broken fountain.

Yami found himself kneeling on the ground, holes ripped in his leggings and a tear down one side of the tunic. A pair of white boots entered his vision and he looked up to find his master staring down at him, arms crossed. "Yami. What were you doing?"

"I-I don't know," Yami answered. He wouldn't meet his master's eyes. Instead, he kept his eyes trained to the ground where a lone beetle was climbing his way out of a treacherous valley made up of shattered cobblestone. His hands fidgeted with the lacings of his boots.

Seto paused at the witch cat's bewildered response, leaning back a little as he surveyed his pupil. "You're distracted," he noted. "Why?"

Yami shook his head, lifting his gaze and staring past his mentor at the chaos he had created. A blot of color among the watery gray labyrinth of wanton destruction caught his eye. Slowly the realization of what it was drifted into his mind. His peach. The one he had tucked into his tunic earlier. He frowned at it, a dim memory tugging at him.

"Peaches . . . there was a peach tree outside the window."

"What?"

"The room with the door . . . the door I can't open. There was a peach tree outside the window. I'd never noticed before."

His mentor's face consorted into a scowl accompanied by a loud sigh of disbelief. "This again? I told you to forget about it. It's a dream. Nothing more."

"But Autumn said–"

"I don't care what that old witch said! I don't want to hear another word about that dream, do you hear me? Not. Another. Word! And where do you think you're going?"

But Yami wasn't listening. He had bounded off through the trees and was racing up the familiar mountain paths. He came to a point where the path dipped into a shallow and narrow basin and new paths opened up all around him, like a labyrinth of sandstone. He chose a path on the left side, one that had a natural archway hanging low over it. He followed it for a short while until he came to a place where a variety of plants had taken root on the cliff wall to his right.

He brushed aside a curtain of vines with budding violet flowers and stepped into the narrow tunnel beyond. His cat-like eyes had no trouble picking out the spiraling staircase at the end of the tunnel that wound upwards through the cave ceiling. Some nameless stranger had carved the stairs and the tunnel long ago, as well as dozens of similar passageways that riddled the cliff sides all through Drakonia Summit.

What purpose they had been originally carved for was a mystery, but the hidden stairways served as a means to reach the various caves that catacomb the mountains for those who were brave enough to approach the dragons. Or knew where to find them.

The force of the wind slammed into him as he emerged for the twisting passage of steps onto a broad ledge that rivaled the size of the center courtyard. A large form with glittering silver white scales rested contentedly in the bright sunlight that soaked the rocky surface.

At first glance, the dragon appeared to be dozing, but as Yami approached her, a questioning hum sent slight tremors through the rock beneath his feet. "I hope I didn't disturb you," he greeted, knowing full well that she had not been sleeping.

The angular head lifted from her forepaws and a sapphire eye opened lazily at him. Her amusement pulsed through the ground beneath his feet. _Not at all, kitten._ Kisara's voice reverberated through his mind via the same telepathic ability that all dragons possessed.

As he approached her, he looked out over the edge of the cliff ledge down onto the sprawling metropolis of rocks and sparse vegetation that had managed to find footholds among the desolate sprawl of cliffs and gullies. Sitting at the base of the cliffs was the wide expanse of green that revolved around the small mansion with its arched gables and spiraling towers of stone and bleached oak wood. Here and there amongst the green, tiny cottages and huts were sprinkled like brown nuts upon an emerald cake.

Snaking around the estate and down the mountains were the low walls made up of gray and brown stones that marked out the different domains. In some places, such as the pastures where the estate's animals grazed, the walls were higher, or virtually nonexistent. Yami could see flecks of white from where he stood, which he knew to be sheep. Beyond them were the plains where the goats and cattle grazed, along with a few horses.

He turned his attention to the east, where the forests of Fey stretched on over the horizons, rolling and dipping until there seemed no end to them. As though the whole world beyond the mountains was nothing but an endless collection of trees. But Yami knew that that side of the forest eventually gave out to the territory of the humans.

To the west, the toadstool patch was just visible through a thin break in the trees, as was the flowing waters of the mountain streams. He followed the streams down to where they merged and joined the Willow River. The curving break in the trees marked out the path as it flowed from the Myrtle Lake in the north down south where it passed through the concave plateau where Mystic Hollow was nestled and then traveled beyond the mountains where it cascaded down into the sea.

Worlds within worlds existed within the forests of Fey. Numerous races had settled within these woods, forming communities scattered far and wide through the woods. Many had fled from lands beyond the forest that the humans had driven them from and claimed for their own. Among the ones that had established a new life, there were few who were willing to leave the safety of the forests and return to the Beyond.

That much he knew from the maps tucked away in the Manor's massive library. But all of it existed within the boundaries of the forests of Fey. Past that was the Beyond, the world of humans. Yami didn't know much about the Beyond. What he did know came from bits and pieces scourged up from the gypsy caravans that roamed the human world in disguise.

During the spring and autumn months, a few brave gypsies would gather to undertake the journey into the Beyond to gather information and ferry messages between the Untouched and those living in the safety of the forests. Yami always wondered what it was like for the Untouched, being the few races that had not been forced to seek the safety of the forests where the humans were too afraid to enter.

Their territories were places where the humans found it difficult to survive or were too dangerous for them to live there. Among them were the Naga who lived in the Khepri Desert. Then there were the dwarves and the mountain elves in the Nesrovnatelný Mountains. In the Crystalline Sea that flowed along the west coast, the merfolk swam freely, untroubled by the humans in the deep waters of their home. And somewhere far beyond the northern mountains was the snowy realm where the Frost fairies lived.

There were other races of course, but they were the Forsaken. Unlike the Untouched, they lived in human infested areas, sometimes even among them if they were humanoid enough. They were known as the Forsaken because they were Fey who had either refused to flee to safety or had been separated from the rest of their people as they sought refuge in the forests.

_How long do you plan to stand there staring at nothing, child? Come. You're shaking like a leaf in the wind and if you don't come away from that ledge I fear you'll fall off and we can't have that now, can we?_

Yami turned his head away the sprawling forests and thoughts of the Beyond to the motherly dragon. He smiled and did as he was told, curling up against the warm scales of Seto's dragon familiar. She had been the first dragon he had met and he loved her dearly. He often came here when he was upset, and most of the time, the cause of his stress was Seto. Kisara always seemed to know the reasoning behind Seto's behavior.

_So what did Seto do this time?_ Kisara asked knowingly.

"Well . . . it was sort of my fault this time." Drawing a finger in the dust he began to relate the events of the practice session to Kisara. The dragon listened quietly without interruption. When he had finished, only the wind could be heard sighing softly across the broken rocks of the cliffs. Finally, Kisara snorted a puff of steam from her nostrils and shifted her head to look at Yami.

_You know that your master means well. I suppose it is difficult to understand him at times when he keeps his feelings locked within. His childhood was not easy. One does not walk away without scars from a thing like that._

Yami's ears perked at the mention of Seto's childhood. Seto refused to speak of it, although Mokuba had told him of how their uncle, Gozaburo, had taken them in after their parents' deaths, and that he was the cause behind Seto's suffering. But that was all Mokuba would tell him. The grey eyed warlock claimed that he hadn't seen most of what had happened to Seto, but Yami suspected Mokuba had a general idea of Seto had went through.

Noah, Gozaburo's son, and their only cousin who lived down in Mystic Hollow, refused to tell him anything either. Noah's excuse was that it was not his place to tell. It was Seto's story, and only Seto could tell him. Yami supposed that philosophy came from Noah's determination to make amends to Seto.

So far . . . it didn't seem to be working. Noah still wasn't allowed anywhere near the estate under threat of being handed over to the dragons for roasting. After receiving scorched eyebrows on his last attempt to speak to Seto, Noah was content to wait in the village until Seto came visiting. As the situation stood, Yami jumped at any chance to know about Seto's past.

The eagerness was not lost on Kisara. She snorted a wreath of smoke at him, making him whine and cover his face in protest. _No, little one. It is not my place. It is Seto's–_

"Place," Yami finished, annoyed. "That's what everyone says!"

_Then maybe there's a bit of truth to it._

"Oh? And I suppose if the whole of Mystic Hollow tells me that chickens are really green and purple I should believe them?"

_Considering that they all possess magic, I don't see why not. Tis quite simple to cast a spell that changes an object's color, is it not?_ Yami raised an eye at her, but was unable to refute the dragon's logic. Instead he crossed his arms and blew a tuft of his blonde bangs out of his eyes. Kisara watched him for a moment.

_You are still upset about the dream._ It wasn't a question but a purely stated fact.

Yami gave a sigh. "It's not so much about the dream but Seto's reaction to it. Every time I mention it he tells me to forget about it or utters some sarcastic reply that makes me want to claw his eyes out. I know he doesn't believe in omens or anything like that, but he doesn't have to be so cynical about it."

Kisara hummed low in her throat_. Should I be worried about how calmly you spoke about clawing your master's eyes out?_

The witch cat gave a choked laugh, sliding against her until his head lay cushioned on his arms, lying lengthways against Kisara's warm underbelly. "No. I just . . . I just wish he'd try to understand for once, before stating that dreams are a load of rubbish and declaring the matter settled. That's all." His eyes slid closed, the exhaustion from his earlier bout of spell casting finally settling in. Kisara covered the slumbering figure with her wing, shielding him from the glare of the sun.

Her head turned as a figure appeared from the entrance of the spiral staircase. Seto folded his hands in the sleeves of his robe as he approached his familiar. He took a glance at Kisara's unfolded wing and guessed what was beneath it.

"How is he?"

_Drained . . . emotionally and physically. It's a wonder he made it here and stayed awake for as long as he did. He usually just collapses in the courtyard. I don't think he can handle any more magic today._

"I know that. I was planning on taking him down to the village this afternoon. A caravan is passing through. It's possible that they have news."

_Your secrets are making him miserable, you know. How long do you plan to keep it from him? Already a memory comes to him in his dreams. You know what awaits him if he opens that door._

"He's not going to open that door."

_You think you can stop him? Yami is as stubborn and as strong-willed as you. Yami is no longer a little kitten needing his master's comfort. If you continue to push him away, he will seek the door. And when the door does not open for him in his dreams, he will seek to find the door in reality._

"Yami's never been further than the elfin territory across the river. That place lies far from here. He would not know where to begin his search."

_And if Autumn should show him the way? She believes he is the key._

Seto snorted. "Autumn will tell him nothing but cryptic sayings and meaningless riddles. She may believe Yami is the key to her circle, but she also believes that fate will guide him on his way."

_She annoys you._

"Of course she does, the blithering fool. Going on about her stupid circle and the key that will bring it to a beginning and an end. Bah! If I hadn't found Yami he'd had been raised in her care and be just as foolish as she is. In fact, he'd already be out there in the Beyond, out on a wild goose chase for those symbols!"

Kisara chuckled and Seto raised an eyebrow at her. "What?"

_My dear Seto, there are those who say you're just a cynical cold hearted dragon, but never let it be said that you don't love that kitten. You adore that child more than any mother dragon could love her hatchling. Aye. And you can be just as fierce when you're protecting him too._

"Don't go sappy on me," the blue eyed warlock snapped, but there was slight smirk tugging on the corner of his lips at Kisara's comparison. He had seen firsthand how protective the female dragons were over their hatchlings, especially when the males were trying to mess with them. So far, Yami was the only creature he had ever seen approach a nest containing eggs or a flightless hatchling without being faced with aggression.

At the thought of the witch cat, his eyes trailed back to the wing. Kisara shifted it to where Seto could reach him but he was still being blocked from the sun. Go on. Take him. A bed will do him better than the hard ground, even with my warmth against him.

Yami didn't stir once as Seto pulled him into his arms. Nodding to Kisara, he ascended the staircase with his burden and headed for home. Behind him, Kisara laid her head down onto her forelimbs again and returned to her nap, lulled to sleep by the warm glow of the sun.

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I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, and yes, there were a lot of secretive things in there. No, I'm not going to explain them. You'll just have to wait and find out. And please . . . leave a review. Reviews make authors happy and inspire us to update faster. :D

Terms and Explanations:

Witch Cat – As far as I know, I invented witch cats, so please, no stealing. A witch cat is a cat demon (werecat) that has formed a bond with a gypsy and gained their powers. A bond can only be formed once, unless their master dies. However, a witch cat only becomes a witch cat when it is either born or raised in the vicinity of a gypsy. Commonly, most witch cats' parents are witch cats themselves. Despite this, not all of the witch cats' children become witch cats: they can be born as normal cat demons even in the presence of many gypsies. Common traits among witch cats are their fangs and retractable claws. All witch cats have black tails and black cat ears. Each has the ability to turn into a domestic cat, and depending on experience, can transform themselves into a wild cat. Yami's form will eventually be a panther. As further note, their cat forms will always be pure black, no matter what type of cat it is.

And oh yes, Yami's bell is the old fashioned type like you'd see in old churches. (Think the bells Quasimodo rings in that Disney movie the Hunchback of Notre Dame on a much smaller scale.) Not the cubed/spherical commercialized type you see nowadays on everything from Santa's sleigh and modern cat collars. Just to clarify things.

Gypsy/Gypsies – Since I didn't want to keep repeating "warlocks and witches" over and over, I'm going to use this term instead. I know that the warlocks can also be called "witches" but I dislike the idea of using that term for the males. And since gypsies have been thought to be witches/warlocks in some cases, I thought it was a reasonable idea.

Draconian Summit – I took the name Draco, which comes from the Latin term Drakon, which means dragon, and just added a suffix. So I'm basically calling it "Dragon Summit." Not very original or creative, I know, but I had to call it something . . .

the Beyond - Everything outside the boundaries of the forests of Fey. Mostly this area of land is inhabited by humans.

Elemental magic – Magic centered on controlling one of the four main elements that suit the practitioner best. The element you wield is the element that your personality most attributes to.

Charms – A branch of gypsy magic that requires very little energy, and is cast by saying an incantation. Kind of like Harry Potter, but charms is about the only gypsy branch of magic that requires incantations. Gypsies don't use wands either. They do use staffs for some magics, however.

Summoning – Another branch of magic where a gypsy is able to summon an animal or creature of a magical race that is similar to his or her personality. They can only summon one particular breed.

Fey – Referring to all magical inhuman races.

Familiar – A familiar is a summoned animal that forms a strong bond with its Summoner, and they are most often the first successful summon he/she achieves. As his first summon, Kisara is Seto's familiar.

Jodoc - Just a random male Celtic name that I liked. He and his sister don't have much to do with this story other than being minor background characters and apprentices to Mokuba.

Epona - It means "horse/mare" in Celtic. I named her this because Mokuba's name has a similar meaning, but like I said, she's not of much importance to the plot.

Hope you enjoyed and farewell for now!


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